


It's a game, avoiding failure

by xantissa



Series: Carnival of Rust [13]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Fix-It, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2017-12-17 17:17:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The second pod is not quite so easy to retrieve and Jim faces some hard truths about leadership.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's a game, avoiding failure

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Spookywanluke for the beta! I don't know who is more impatient: you guys waiting for a new installment or me, waiting to see how you like it and how many kudos you give.

“I don’t like this. I really don’t like this.” McCoy grouched as he awkwardly maneuvered the hand held scanner over the still closed cryopod. The thermal suit was great for keeping him warm in the incredibly low temperatures of the Uranus Secure Storage Facility but it did nothing for dexterity. It wasn’t helped by the mask he had to wear less the cold air damage his lungs and throat.

 

Clumsily, he bent down and retrieved the device Khan and Scott cobbled together that would allow for an emergency revival procedure. It all sounded very clean and nice but Bones was smart enough to realize that while a person with similar cellular regeneration rate as Khan would survive such an awakening ~~but~~ it would be incredibly painful. He had means to lessen some of the side effects but only specialized machines could save that man’s lungs from being all but burned out from the inside by the chemicals in the pod and the temperature outside it.

 

All of them were dressed in the thermal suits that had an internal air heating system, but no matter how fast they worked, this man would sustain additional damage from the cold on top of all the things he will carry from this experimental procedure.

 

Originally they had planned to get the tube out without waking the occupant. However what they at first believed to be an advantage turned out to be a big damn problem.

 

The USSF, due to the extreme temperatures, was manned by automatic drones. Jim was sure he hacked their programming, making them useless but no one knew about the secondary security system.

 

It was separate with no connection to outside communication systems, therefore making it invisible for Jim who was hacking from the shuttle they had parked not far from the facility. It was very easy and very, very ingenious system. It let them walk in unchallenged but the moment they moved towards the exits it emitted a signal that instantaneously reset all the drones in the facility.

 

Now here they were, cornered in one of the more defensive rooms, managing to keep the drones away through judicious use of laser traps Khan procured in London. Armed with small handheld phasers, Khan was guarding one door while Jim was covering the second entrance. The augmented soldier fought the small, spider-like drones like a man possessed, destroying them left and right, earning them this small space. Jim was no slouch, his marksmanship much better than McCoy ever expected of him but unlike the augment he wasn’t nearly as fast or as strong.

 

Jim had a few nasty cuts, his silvery-grey suit splattered with blood on his chest and arms from where the drones had managed to skewer him with their pointy appendages.

 

McCoy understood that they had no chance in hell of carrying the pod outside of the shielded zone to be beamed up under that kind of fire. Their only chance was to wake this man in the cryopod up and make the poor man walk out himself.

 

Khan identified the man as Ao Turin. He was very tightlipped about that man’s actual role in his crew but insisted that whatever the damage, Turin would be able to pull his weight in their escape.

 

They couldn’t afford to stall too long since Jim outright refused to risk any more of his crew than necessary and Khan wouldn’t let himself be pushed away from the rescue. With the high possibility of armed resistance, it was decided that Jim, Khan and McCoy would enter the premises while Katya, suggested by Spock of all people, would be their pilot and also would stay behind with the shuttle making sure their hidden transport would remain undamaged. Without the shuttle they would have no chances of surviving this adventure.

 

So far she was doing an admirable job since she sent ‘all clear’ signals every sixty seconds.

 

“We have to get him suited up as soon as I open the cryopod. I managed to limit the damage somewhat but I have no idea what condition his lungs are going to be.” Frankly, McCoy wasn’t sure there would even _be_ lungs anymore. It was a no win situation. Due to the extreme temperature, he couldn’t open the tube before all life functions were sufficiently restarted, but also it meant that the patient would breath in the gasses that are released during the revival procedure.

 

There was a skittering sound outside and Khan jerked the heavy metal door open as if they weighted nothing. Even though Bones knew Khan was as strong as a Vulcan if not stronger, it still made him take a second to gape at how casually the man could move what was essentially a solid steel piece of wall meant to stop an invading army.

 

As soon as he was outside he pulled the door closed again and they could hear muffled shots and thumps. With preternatural efficiency, almost each shot was followed by explosion indicating the destruction of another drone.

 

With grim determination Bones worked on the tube, inputting the correct sequences into the device they brought as backup. The pod hummed, revealing previously hidden compartments and started flashing lights indicating the progress of the procedure. He knew that the whole thing would take just a few short minutes, but with Jim panting for breath behind him, patched up only with some spray-on glue, and a seemingly endless barrage of shots coming from Khan’s end of the room, it felt like an eternity.

 

Somewhere in the middle of the procedure Jim’s comm lit up, one that they used for the undetectable, close rage communications.

 

There was quite a bit of static before they heard a steady voice.

 

“There are fighters approaching.” Katya reported.

 

McCoy had to admire her nerves, he wouldn’t sound like that if he saw fighters, especially since her shuttle only had minimal shielding capacity and no weapons to speak of.

 

“Can you avoid?” Jim asked, his face getting grimmer by the second.

 

There was a pause. They were all aware of the fact that while Katya was a decent pilot she wasn’t a genius at it and furthermore the shuttle couldn’t really handle any kind of fancy flying. It was a glorified flying barge, perfect to pretend they were just another crew of a transport shuttle making the usual rounds between Earth and various manufacturing units scattered over their solar system, but not really mobile.

 

“Negative. I estimate they will find me in approximately two minutes.” Another pause. “I have nowhere to run or to hide.”

 

Jim rubbed his head, his gloves making a sharp sound on the material of his hood. He opened his mouth to say something but Khan’s voice interrupted him over the comm. It was low, deadly and almost velveteen. It send shivers down Bone’s back.

 

“Do whatever is necessary to protect the shuttle.”

 

There was a barely there pause and then Katya responded, her voice echoing oddly.

 

“Acknowledged.”

 

“What?” Jim yelled. “Khan, what are you doing? What did you just order her to do?” Khan didn’t respond though.

 

“Damn it Khan!” Jim growled and changed tactics. “Katya, do you read me?”

 

No response, only the static met his hails.

 

“Katya listen to me very carefully. I know you are loyal to your leader. But I am the Captain here, you are on this mission as part of my crew, my people.” His voice lowered, becoming tight and angry “when I ask you to report, you will report. Am. I. Clear?”

 

More silence. Bones couldn’t stop himself from straining his ears for response even while he kept both eyes fixed on the progress of the cryotube.

 

Unexpectedly, it wasn’t the woman’s voice they heard.

 

“Katya, answer him.” It was impossible to read any emotion from Khan’s voice, but Bones realized that he actually ceded control of one of his people to Jim, even if for a moment.

 

“I will attempt to land the shuttle on the surface. I need the fighters to enter the planet’s atmosphere.” She sounded strained, distracted, probably fighting with the slow machine.

 

“What for? You have no weapons save one rifle. If they have fighter jets they are not going to land and search for you on the ground.” Jim pressed, feeling that he was lacking some important bit of information.

 

Bones suddenly remembered the scans he took on the woman when she finally showed up for a medical, and the subtle differences to Khan. She didn’t have his stamina or his strength, but...

 

“She’s a sharpshooter.” McCoy blurted out suddenly, as surprised by his discovery as the fact he just blurted it out like that.

 

“What?” Jim turned to him, surprised at the source of the information.

 

“Well I think she is. In her scans I noticed that her eyes were developed differently than Khan’s, or any other human really.”

 

Kirk turned back to the comm.

 

“Are you telling me you are going to try and shoot fighter jets out of the sky with the use of a single high powered rifle?” The Captains voice kept getting higher and higher with disbelief.

 

Again it was Khan that answered.

 

“I assure you, _Captain_ , that she can do it.”

 

“Shut up Khan, I wasn’t talking to you. Katya are the jets manned or drones?”

 

There were much more static when Katya reported in, it meant she was already in Uranus’ atmosphere.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

Jim exhaled loudly.

 

“Shoot to cripple only. There are not going to be any fatalities, understood?”

 

Even Bones had to pause at that because surely Jim had to know how impossible a demand that was?

 

“Confirm the order.” Jim insisted, his voice low and angry.

 

After a long pause, finally came:

 

“Acknowledged.”

 

Khan came back just minutes later, his posture as stiff as ever. He didn’t acknowledge Jim in any way, only turned to the cryopod.

 

After that, they turned back to the task at hand. The man in the cryopod was surprisingly huge, looking oddly squashed in the tube. He was blond, curly hair almost reaching his shoulders. Big and muscular he looked to be much bigger than Khan. He had the same kind of flawless features, almost perfectly symmetric as the other augments Jim had seen.

 

As soon as the pod opened, they pulled him out of it and started pulling the spare suit on him. It was hard work, trying to manipulate an unconscious person, but someone as big as this was only making it harder. The man’s breathing sounded like it was coming through a straw that was still sitting in a glass of water. It was gurgling and wheezing, more than a little painful. As they managed to get both his legs into the suit and were trying to pull it up over his hips when he twitched, almost throwing Jim out of balance.

 

“Not to complain or anything” The man wheezed suddenly “But shouldn’t you introduce yourself at least before stuffing your hands down my pants?” The man’s voice sounded like it was coming through a grinder, harsh gurgling sounds and stifled coughs making it hard to understand him at first.

 

Khan made a strange sound, somewhere between a sob and a laugh. He ripped his right glove off and pressed his hand to the chilled, blood-splattered cheek of the blond man.

 

“Turin.” He said tightly, his voice low, velvety and full of things they couldn’t name. The man fumbled a bit before finally managing to clumsily pat Khan’s arm. “I have missed you.” Khan said fiercely.

 

His hand was shaking.

 

“Can’t say the same boss.” The blond augment wheezed out, more blood splattering his lips and chin. “It’s like I was asleep or something.”

 

Khan lowered his head, his hand still pressed to the blond man’s cheek, now white with cold. His shoulders were lowered, almost sagging.

 

“He’s getting dangerously cold Khan, we need to suit him up now.” McCoy had to interfere into the surprisingly intense moment. Unlike what happened with Katya’s awakening, this man, Turin, seemed in a fairly good psychological condition. He stayed loose and even tried to help while they were desperately stuffing him into the spare thermal suit. He recognized Khan even though he kept his eyes closed, probably waiting for the damage to heal. His breathing was getting a bit better but the coughs were worse. Disturbingly, Bones thought he was trying to get rid of the dead lung tissue but instead of spitting it out he was trying to swallow it back down.

 

It didn’t take more than a few moments to pull the rest of the suit up and close the mask over his head, starting the warmed air flow. Instantly, the recently awakened augment started breathing better, now that the cold wasn’t burning out his lungs any more.

 

Khan refastened his glove, all the while flexing his hand, trying to get the flesh warmed up sooner.

 

Jim stayed silent, watching the interaction between the two men. There was a desperate sort of gentleness in Khan, emotion that made Jim realize that before the anger and vengeance, there must have been a different man, a softer one. He wondered if there was anything left of that man in Khan or had Marcus burned him out completely.

 

The dark haired augment tapped the comm unit on the new suit and synched it with theirs.

 

“We are in a hostile territory. I need you moving.” It was all the order the new arrival needed.

 

Immediately he rolled over and started to push himself up. Judging by the way his breathing stuttered and how slowly he moved it must have hurt like hell and Jim saw firsthand how much pain an augment could take. He was absolutely certain that no human could have gotten up quite this fast.

 

In a matter of moments Turin was up, hugging the wall to stay upright but stubbornly vertical.

 

“I’m good.” The man wheezed an announcement. He seemed to be in a fairly good mood despite the pain.

 

“Okay.” Jim finally interjected. “Khan and I need to be free to fight our way out. McCoy, make sure our guest will make it out of here.” Jim said as he crouched down by McCoy’s bag and started looking for the explosives they brought down with them. “I’m setting the charge for four minutes.” Since they couldn’t put the fake tube in its place they had opted to blow up a big chunk of the facility to hide what exactly they took from it.

 

Bones slid closer to the new augment.

 

“Can you open your eyes yet?” The doctor asked as he slid under the man’s arm to hold him steady.

 

“Well…” The man hedged. “I can open them, definitely.”

 

“He’s blind as a bat right now.” Khan interrupted them. “Doesn’t matter. Just arm him, he’ll deal.”

 

McCoy shot Jim a stunned look. There was callous and then there was... Khan, apparently.

 

Sudden, violent coughs racked the huge body, making the man lean more of his weight on the doctor. Bones could barely keep his knees from buckling, the man was huge. It took him a moment to realize that he was coughing because he couldn’t actually laugh yet.

 

“Where’s the love boss.” Turin rasped as they made their way down another corridor.

 

Jim could feel his brows raising at the pure sass the man was displaying towards his leader. After Katya, Jim expected all of them to be quiet, obedient, and unexpectedly lethal. There was nothing unexpected about the new man though. He was huge, almost a head taller than Khan, all solid muscle. Kirk really didn’t want to face him in hand to hand combat. The constant sass was throwing him for a loop though. Even half conscious and in severe pain the man kept flirting and running his mouth. What surprised the Captain more was that Khan did nothing to stop it. A time or two he moved in a way that suggested he was smothering a laugh. It made Jim wonder just how different Turin was, what he meant to Khan and what he meant for Jim’s crew?

 

He watched Turin move his head from side to side and then aim and fire blindly, hitting the drones perfectly each time. It seemed blind or not, the man was still frighteningly effective.

 

“Something big just hit the ground.” Khan announced suddenly.

 

“It feels like somebody’s swatting.” Turin wheezed, hell bent on talking when it was so obvious he could barely breathe.

 

“Katya.” Khan’s voice was as steady as always, he gave no indication that the constant foraging ahead to clear the path tired him at all.

 

“Swatting?” Jim asked perplexed.

 

Turin snorted or what could be called snorting by a person that had more fluid than air in their lungs.

 

“You know, like swatting a fly.”

 

The ground shuddered hard enough this time that even Jim could feel it. Even half slumped over McCoy Jim knew the man itched to gesticulate ‘ _see_?’ at him. There was something incredibly expressive in that mountain of a man.

 

“ _Swatting_.”

 

“They were raised in times of peace Turin. They don’t understand.” Khan’s velveteen voice was low and incredibly alluring. Something akin to nostalgia colouring it this time.

 

Turin shook his head but didn’t answer.

 

Between Khan and Jim and unexpected backup from Turin they made quick way outside. The moment they reached the main gate, the facility was shaken by a powerful explosion that made Jim and Bones stumble. Both Khan and Turin stayed on their feet.

 

As soon as their eyes adjusted to the harsh blue light of the decidedly uninhabitable planet, instead of a strip of manmade landings they saw a picture right from an action movie. Less than a hundred meters from the entrance there was a smoking ruin of a fighter jet crashed into the landing. Further back they could see another one. Their engines were blown up to pieces but the pilot cabins remained untouched, both open meaning whoever was inside managed to eject before the crash. If they were equipped properly they would survive long enough to be picked up by a rescue unit.

 

“Katya?” Jim commed, scanning his visible range for the old shuttle they were using. 

 

“ETA thirty seconds.” She sounded strange, as if she was talking through clenched teeth. Jim wondered if she was angry at him for undermining Khan’s order. In the insanity of this whole thing he didn’t ever stop to consider if she even would follow his orders.

 

True to her words, the shuttle appeared in front of them in less than thirty seconds, lowering to landing in a strangely wobbly way, ice covering most of the hull. They squeezed into the small airlock together, waiting till the door closed and atmosphere be restored before pulling off the helmets.

 

McCoy and he were first, Khan next and then Turin. The blond man still had his eyes tightly closed, a slight pinkish fluid leaking from beneath the lids. Jim couldn’t help himself from watching. There was something fascinating in the amount of damage the augments could take and just go on like it was nothing, damage that would have any other human writhing on the floor, probably dying of shock.

 

The ship lurched to the side sharply and everybody scrambled to get a hold of something.

 

“What the hell?” Kirk muttered and turned to the pilot cabin separated by another airlock from the cargo compartment they were in now.

 

The moment the metal door opened Jim knew something was wrong. Katya wasn’t sitting in the pilot chair as much as she was half lying on the console, clutching the controls. The shuttle lurched again and Jim launched himself for the controls, jumping into the copilot seat with enough force to bruise his tailbone. With clenched teeth he grabbed the controls and hit the emergency switch button, cutting off Katya’s controls completely.

 

“Bones!” Jim yelled trying to keep one eye on their flight path and one eye on the woman. He tried to assess her condition from where he was but the mass of red hair obscured everything. “Bones! Katya’s unconscious!” He yelled again.

 

McCoy was first in the cabin, Khan presumably securing his new companion. The doctor pushed the woman straight in the chair and as the hair fell away they both saw the extent of the damage.

 

The whole right side of her face was covered in livid bruises and blood, looking as if it was crushed. There were trails of blood leaking from her nose, her ear and between her lips, soaking into the silvery material of the thermal suit at her neck. There was no blood lower but Bones was already scanning her midsection and cursing up a storm.

 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck...” The doctor wasn’t even aware of the words leaving his mouth even as he struggled to turn the pilot chair enough to be able to get her out of it.

 

“What? What is going on?” Jim demanded feeling an odd sort of queasiness in his stomach. She was hurt, hurt very badly by the looks of it and he wondered, for a moment, if his order didn’t have anything to do with her condition.

 

“She has internal injuries. Blunt force trauma. Ruptured spleen, ruptured kidney, hell everything seems to be fucking ruptured. Seven ribs are broken... there’s too much, too fucking much. She’s bleeding out internally!”

 

“Do something!” Jim demanded, feeling oddly hysterical. He couldn’t stop staring at her blood. It was the first time somebody under his orders got seriously hurt in front of his eyes.

 

“I can’t. I fucking can’t! I need an operating table and tools beyond what I have with me.” Bones was grim, yelling at Jim, working to get her out of the chair.

 

She moaned suddenly, her eyes fluttering open. The moment she realized McCoy was standing above her she flinched and flailed so hard she actually fell out of the chair, hitting the floor with a sickening thud and a moan. The fall was painful enough to knock her out again. Even though he wasn’t a doctor even Jim could hear that her breathing wasn’t quite right.

 

Bones moved to touch her again but was interrupted by Khan appearing out of nowhere. The man fell to his knees and grabbed Katya’s shoulders, pulling the woman from between the chairs and into a marginally more open space.

 

“Get your scalpel or something sharp.” Snapped the augment, his voice hard and cold. “The injuries won’t kill her but the internal bleeding is causing too much pain. We need to lessen the pressure.” With that he ripped the suit apart as if it was tissue paper to bare her belly.

 

Bones looked grim but determined as he crouched beside the two, a laser scalpel at the ready. There was no reason not to trust Khan on what could and could not kill her, even if what he was proposing was barbaric.

 

“Fly steady Jim.” McCoy ordered and then, without further thought, cut through the skin and muscles, careful to avoid damaging anything else. Almost instantly blood spurted out with enough pressure to splatter not only his hands but the wall beside them. The amount of blood escaping that small cut was disconcerting. It quickly formed a pool around her, staining the doctors’ legs.

 

In the sudden silence that enveloped the shuttle all that could be heard was her strained breathing that slowly evened out. When the flow of blood lessened and then stopped to barely a trickle, she was breathing easy and her face was no longer so pale.

 

“What happened to her?” Kirk asked, risking a glance back.

 

Khan’s face was cold, his pale eyes intense and unyielding as he skewered the blond with them.

 

“I estimate that in order to carry out your naïve orders she took unnecessary risks and was caught in an explosion. The injuries are consistent with trauma caused by shockwave.”

 

“Naïve?!” Jim exclaimed, outraged. Not wanting a bloodbath, not wanting innocent people killed was not something he would ever be ashamed of! “I told you before, no one dies. Not your people nor mine!”

 

If the situation was different, if the smell of blood wasn’t so overpowering in the small space Jim might have stopped his tongue, his automatic defense, but the tensions were running high and he was always a hothead.

 

“You had no problem risking Katya’s life to save a few of the enemies!” Khan’s voice was even lower, colder and more menacing.

 

“Those pilots were not enemies, they were just doing their job!” Jim defended hotly.

 

“They were if they were shooting at me and mine.” Khan looked like he was gathering for a bigger fight when Bones stepped between them, physically breaking the line of sight.

  
“Gentlemen!” He snapped, angry and tired. “This is no place and not the time. I have a patient to take care of and you two have things to do. Jim, focus on flying because after everything that happened today, the last thing I want is to crash on some space debris. Khan, you go check on your friend in the cargo compartment.”

 

With a huff, Khan straightened out and after sweeping his cold gaze over Jim, the doctor and the unconscious woman, he turned and left without a word.

 

Jim opened his mouth but Bones cut in just as sharply as before.

 

“You shut up and fly.”

 

After that the only thing to be heard in the small shuttle were the occasional hiss of hypospray and the clunking of old machinery.

 

Jim flied, his throat tight, heart beating an unsteady rhythm and stomach twitching in unexplained queasiness.

 

He couldn’t forget the sight of Katya’s blood spurting over the metal floor.

 

The end

21-06-2013

**Author's Note:**

> Remember that Jim is a very young Captain and hasn’t had the time to face the consequences of his orders outside of a totally catastrophic situation. Also I hope you will like Turin. 
> 
> Go wild on the Kudos button people!


End file.
